Chapter 1: Auria
The problem with stealing from an afternoon market is that guards notice more in the daylight. And they’re more ornery because they haven’t had dinner yet.
I ducked behind a post that supported two lines of hawker’s tents. My linen skirts didn’t fit behind the post, but perhaps the soldiers wouldn’t notice.
“No way, Goldy.” An elbow hit my side, and I turned to see a half-grown elf hiding with me. “I was here first. Go find your own shady spot.”
“Crusty,” I whispered at the vagrant. “I just need a minute to wait for some guards to pass by.”
A glint lit up his eye. “If I yell at you, they’ll ignore the bread I stole this morning.”
“It’sbreadthey’re after me for!” I hissed back at him.
“Sorry, Goldy, I need them to like me.” I clenched my jaw. This kid was a nightmare. Sure, he’d kept me alive once or twice by sharing some bread crusts—and earned his nickname—but he was no more loyal than a rabid bat with a button tied on his tail.
He hesitated for a moment, and I tried to change his mind. “Please, Crusty. You know what they’ll do to me!” We’d both hit the streets when we were ten years old, but the next fourteen years had treated us differently.I—a human—had grown up, and he—an elf who aged slower than humans—was still a child.
And he wasn’t nearly as concerned for me now as he had been a decade ago.
He glanced over my shoulder, and I turned to follow his gaze. A soldier stared right at us.
No. Crusty had no choice now—if he didn’t turn me in, they’d be after him too. I gripped my skirts and darted away.
“I saw you!” Crusty yelled. “You stole that!” Hopefully that worked for him. They might go easier on him because he was a child, but the little brat didn’t need to be arrested any more than I did.
I ran harder, turning into an alley that led away from the market. It was a risky move, because the market had more hiding places than the two miles of homes and back streets, but the chaotic collection of buildings held more places that completely concealed me.
“No fear,” I whispered to myself. Make a choice, and don’t look back. Second guessing only got people in trouble.
A loud squawk cut through the air. I glanced up and saw a white bird flying above me, on my left, so I turned right. This road was bigger, so I raced to the middle, slipped to the other side of a cart of apples, and slowed down.
The tall elf pushing the cart looked down his nose at me and then over his left shoulder at the guards thatcame spilling out of the alley. “I don’t hide criminals, Human.”
I replaced the hood that had fallen off my head as I’d run, tucking my hair inside it. “Being human is not a crime.”
He clenched his fists around the cart handles. “But running from soldiers would suggest you have done more than just exist.”
I didn’t know this elf, but he didn’t seem too eager to turn me in, despite his obvious aversion to humans. I gestured at the soldiers with one hand, slipped one of the apples out of his cart and into my pocket with the other, and sighed tragically. “Not everyone is as tolerant as you are of inferior species.” I shot him a desperate, vulnerable puppy sort of look. “I don’t need you to hide me. Just don’t look at me for a few moments. Once I’m out of sight, tell the soldiers you saw a suspicious human running into the forest.”
He sighed and looked away from me, straight ahead of us. I angled my body to hide behind him and made sure that my long, golden hair did not escape my hood.
We reached the end of the street after a few short minutes, and the apple-carting elf turned to me again. “I haven’t seen any soldiers for at least a minute, but they always patrol the street I’m turning onto.” He tipped his head to the left, where several other produce carts were lined up with sellers behind them.
I stepped farther away from him, toward the end of the street. “Thank you. I know you didn’t have any reason to help me, and I really do appreciate it.”
He nodded, started to roll his cart away, and then stopped. “I will report you when they check on me during setup. I expect it will be within twenty minutes.”
Of course. It was too much to hope a random elf would pity me long enough to risk civil disobedience. I smiled and flourished a deep curtsy. “Then I shall run fast.”
And I did, straight into the forest.
* * *
Once I cleared the tree line, my white cockatoo flew down from the canopy and landed on my shoulder. I patted his foot. “Hey, Rat, thanks for the tip back there.”
He chirped, so I reached in a pocket and pulled out a sunflower seed for the bird. “Any advice now?”
Rat dropped the sunflower seed shells on the ground and took a few seconds to swallow before pushing off my shoulder, chortling, and flying ahead.
